Sunday the weather was beautiful - high of 65-70 for the day. I woke up at 4:30 a.m., ate a bagel and drank lots of water and a little Gatorade. I got all my stuff ready the night before. I had my gels, glide, gum, ipod, timing chip attached to my shoe, number pinned on my shirt, my favorite socks, and the shorts I trained in that I knew would be good to run in.
When we got to the starting line, I stood by some chatty 10-minute milers, lots of nervous energy around. I walked up to the front once to see the elite runners. It was cool at the start and absolutely perfect. The gun went off at 8:00 a.m. and we were off (almost 6,000 runners - what a sight!). I spent the night before praying about my knees and legs because I had some pain earlier that week. Once I started running that morning, I felt fine. Although, it took me about 4 - 5 miles to get warmed up and feel comfortable, but that's normal for me. Miles 3-7 were pretty hilly, but the route was so beautiful w/changing trees everywhere that I didn't mind much.
I saw my family several times along the route and that helped so much! They gave me high fives, drinks and took pictures. They were wonderful.
(Here I am at the half way point. This is where I decided to start using my ipod).I felt pretty good up until mile 22. I slowed down quite a bit during those last miles and the last two miles I alternated between running and walking. This was about the time I realized I wasn't going to make my time goal of finishing in 4:30-4:45, so I just tried to enjoy it and do my best. It was never an option for me not to finish. I knew I would get to the finish line eventually, no matter how that had to happen.
I was really impressed with the course. It was really well organized. There was lots of water/Gatorade stops and first aid people on bikes everywhere. Everything about this marathon was better than my last one, except my time (it was almost exactly the same), but I'm attributing that to the hills. :)
4 hours 58 min. later, there it was...the beautiful finish line! Finishing is one of the best feelings in the world and I always get a little emotional at the end.
2 comments:
This was fun to read....I remember reading it back in 2007, too. hey--we've been *friends* a long time!
I like the idea of turning your music on later in the race - a good idea since the start of a race is so busy/hectic/exciting that you hardly hear the music anyway.
So glad you were able to finish even though it was tough at the end. Great job!!!
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